Sharing and Publishing Research Data: Challenges & Opportunities

We are living through a time of accelerating change and transformation, where the landscape of scholarly publishing is undergoing tectonic shifts in how we operate, how we communicate, and where we add value to the research and learning lifecycles. Like all organizations dedicated to the business of information and data, content and service providers in our industry are experiencing challenges brought on by open access mandates, ongoing institutional budget crises, technological revolutions, and more. The 2023 New Directions Seminar will focus on how those working in scholarly communications manage commercial and cultural disruptions. Where are the sands shifting most dramatically? How are content and service providers responding to these disruptions? What are the priorities and what is being left behind? What tools and methods do we need to successfully weather these disruptive changes? Framework Viewed through the lens of a typical research workflow, we can observe disruptions and systemic changes underway at every step along the journey. The 2023 New Directions seminar will be designed to address where and how the “sands” are shifting at each junction of the scholarly communications lifecycle. Sessions will address topics from how changing funder mandates and AI tools are impacting researcher practices to open peer review, data sharing, and more. We hope to close the session with a change management workshop-style session designed to support resiliency in publishing professionals.

Curator/Steward/Describer/Translator/Taxonomer/Project Manager of data in any form you care to throw at me. My goal is always to get the most out of the data for the end user, and have it easily accessible from multiple points. Currently interested in digital curation and research data, linked data and working with NLP-based technology to build effective text-mining tools, especially when applied towards aiding interdisciplinary research. Highly skilled in the ability to translate complex technological concepts to a non-techie audience. Experienced in handling archival materials and digitization projects, complex digital objects and their dependencies, metathesauri, and metadata standards/schemas. Currently working with researchers in the scientific and digital humanities fields to describe, package and transfer their data to our search and discovery tool. Major considerations throughout the process include maximum re-use and understanding of the data by end users, proper application of copyright, licensing and access levels, and the constant analysis of our data model for flexibility and effective interaction with open repository software. Specialties: Data curation, data analysis, metadata standards and schemas, digitization of archival materials, indexing and taxonomies, data design for bibliographic databases, project management, and translator of techie language and concepts to non-techie people.

Kiera is the Research Data Manager at Cambridge University Press, overseeing Press policies and practices in data sharing and research transparency as part of the cross-departmental Scholarly Communications R&D team. A key part of Kiera’s role is working across the Press portfolio of over 400 journals to understand their needs and challenges with respect to data sharing in different fields – and helping to develop and implement best practices and new initiatives. Kiera is currently a member of the Qualitative Data Repository’s Research Advisory Board, a Stakeholder Advisor on the FAIRsharing Advisory Board, and an active member of the Research Data Alliance. A former chemistry researcher, Kiera has also worked previously worked for the British Library and Royal Society of Chemistry on challenges and opportunities related to sharing and re-use of research outputs.